To Break Something Stolen
by LemonPuddingz
Summary: Sequel to Steal My Heart. After a break from the life of a thief to study under a spiritual master, Maya Sekhar is called back to the gang to help with the reclamation of the Cooper Vault. Now that she's back, things will get complicated. Old fears come back to haunt her and living with the gang isn't easy. (Summary subject to change. Rated M just in case.)
1. Prologue

**Hey everyone! I'm back! I think... School has been hectic and before that work was hectic and on top of that I never could write something I was happy with this summer. I had a prologue and a first chapter to this written and I hated them both so I revised them and what little information was contained in them both is now in this new and improved prologue. Anyway, I have to admit that for a while there I lost my muse, but I'd like to thank everyone who helped me get it back by giving such awesome reviews, favoriting the story, myself as an author and following. I'm keeping a list of you now as inspiration.**

**That being said, I don't have a ton of time for a lot of individual thanks, but I'd like to say thanks to those who favorited my first story, Steal My Heart. Thank you: nightmaster000, LandSlide96, The Manga Goddess, raptor123, Fictional writer 14, Spartan10007, KittyGems, brokenXangel15, AriesTanotage, Artur Paendrag Taneall, Eve Kagamine, pure1ruby, The Sly Cooper, Andilite, kitsunlover, ShadowYashi, DalaneyP12, Wrayth-Pariah, keller75863548274483, Digi-Tiger, unfledgedd, WaunderingFlyer23, rob-job, Aim1107, Cherry Hitachiin, Terra-Fair, JPR8686, KaiaUchiha1, Nakirali, antaurilover685, Shad360, WhiteWolf125, M3GHAN08, Lady Fon Slytherin, Destiny Xavier16, taciturnTherapist, Wolf Boy 95, Princesslostsoul, and ThisIsHope.**

**I would also like to take a moment to thank those who followed the prequel to this story. I hope that you will all be back to follow this story as well. Thanks to: LandSlide96, Blue Wolf29, Isillis, KurokamiHaruhi, Spartan10007, Undertaker's Hattress, brokenXangel15, Artur Paendrag Taneall, KateAlexandraH, pure1ruby, Andilite, ShadowYashi, MeowBearsPanda29, Wrayth-Pariah, keller75863548274483, unfledgedd, M3GHAN08, Terra-Fair, KaiaUchiha1, Gordon1Freeman3, taciturnTherapist, Wolf Boy 95, and Princesslostsoul.  
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**Last but not least, I would like to send out a personal thanks to my reviewers from Steal My Heart. I hope that with your input this story can be so much better. Thanks: nightmaster000, KurokamiHaruhi, Shiningheart of Thunderclan, The Sly Cooper (no, no sappy endings... not yet), Spiced Enchilada, DonTheHero, and Luontoiti for your support and kind words.**

**A special thanks:**

**Spartan10007: Thanks for your continued support and understanding during the undertaking of Steak My Heart. I hope that this sequel is what you were hoping for and more.**

**Andilite: Not only were you supportive but you were also a critic. Every now and again I need to be told what to do better, so thank you. I'll try to do better in this story not putting so much detail into the scenes straight from the game. When I do that it drives me crazy, too.**

**keller75863548274483: Hopefully when this is all over I won't have to constantly look back to type your whole username... lol. Here is the much awaited sequel. I hope you like it and thanks for reviewing.**

**Foxes Are Us: That was definitely an intended cliffhanger, and I'm probably going to end this story in a cliffhanger of some sort as well because (spoiler alert) there will be a third story yet to come. Thank you for reviewing and please enjoy.**

**ThisIsHope: You're the one I have to thank for me getting back up and writing again. I have to say that while the others asking me about a sequel got me in motion to write one, your final request for a sequel was the straw that broke the camel's back and I decided that it had been long enough since I last wrote. Thank you for reading my last story and for booting me back into writing mode. I do plan for their relationship to get complicated from here on out. I promise there will be something done about the sexual tension. **

**If anyone feels missed, if you didn't see your name on my list of people following or favoriting the last story, please message me. I don't want to miss anyone. I was using my email archive as a record and list of past favorites and follows. I have actually kept every email this site has sent me since the day I joined. Thank you again, everyone, and now on with the story.**

As I stepped off the plane at Charles de Gaulle the indecipherable buzz of French and the smell of the city of Paris reminded me quickly that it was here in this city, just a year ago, that my life had taken a turn I'd never expected. A year ago, love was just a fantasy to me. It was something that fairy tale princesses and princes had, not something real, and definitely not something that I expected to find. Anything other than the heiress of a spice empire was not something I could ever be. Power was something I didn't have, not in my life, not in my life's choices, and definitely not like I'd gained since I'd last stepped foot in this very airport.

Just a year ago, I was convinced that my path lay with the Klaww Gang and that no other path would ever suit me. It was as my father wanted, I was going to be the perfect heiress to his empire and he would find me the perfect suitor to carry on his legacy. The only men I'd ever known were my father, the Klaww Gang and a slew of suitors from far and wide all vying for my hand in marriage. They didn't love me… they loved the idea of marrying into all of that money and power. Back then I knew that eventually I would be forced to marry for the sake of the spice and love would have nothing to do with the pairing. It was hard to believe, now, that my life had once been like that.

It was now about a year ago that a certain stubborn raccoon waltzed into my life – both figuratively and literally – and flipped everything I knew on its head. He was unlike any man that I'd known up to that point. At first he had been an obnoxious flirt who I wanted nothing more than to wipe off the face of the planet, but it didn't take him long to see right through me and bring out every insecurity I never knew I had. He broke me and when I was ready he helped build me back up. Being with him was nothing like being with a suitor. He won my heart naturally just by being who he was. It was through his insistence that I finally was able to make choices for myself again, as my mother would have wanted. He destroyed the Klaww Gang and then offered me a place to call home and of course I went with him.

Joining the Cooper Gang had been easy. I hadn't really thought about it at the time, but ever since we'd met in Paris at Dimitri's club, I had been building the trust of the other two members, Benltey and Murray. Murray was a bit more open to my joining the gang, while Bentley was still suspicious of me for a long time. Over time, I came to earn their trust and friendship and I found two more companions that I wouldn't trade for the world. Being a member of the Cooper Gang was as natural as breathing. I didn't feel forced by them to be something or do something I didn't want, and they were quick to take care of me when I was hurt. It was the first time in a long time that I felt as if I had a family again. That's what made it harder when our little family practically fell apart at the seams.

None of us really expected the kind of tragedy that befell that last heist in Arpeggio's airship over Paris. Arpeggio, the man who had been my best friend for a long time, died before the fighting even started. All the plans we'd made became useless when Neyla became one with the Clockwerk frame. She was crazy and evil in ways that I would never understand. When Sly finally made his move to take her out, she tried to take all of us with her. In the end, it was only casualties and pain, not victory, which we faced. Bentley was severely injured and Sly was taken into custody. It would have been an understatement to say that we felt the situation was hopeless. All of us wondered what would become of us.

I knew a doctor and we got Bentley patched up, but he would never walk again. The pain of the situation drove Murray to leave us to find his spiritual center. It was more painful than anything to see the devastation that the final battle had caused within this small group of friends. I, too, eventually left. After confronting my father in prison I'd discovered that the powers over lightning that I'd exhibited on the airship were hereditary. It hurt to leave the gang, but just as Murray I needed a spiritual teacher to help me gain control over these powers. Perhaps if I was stronger, this kind of tragedy would never befall us again.

Before seeing me off, Bentley built a special phone for me that only they could call so that they could keep in touch with me. It became a monthly thing later in my journey to get a call from Sly. He usually was checking in with me and at first he would make sure I knew how much he missed me but then he seemed to mellow out after I'd been gone for about half a year. I thought that he'd finally gotten used to the idea of me being in a different country and I knew that he had supported my choice to go even if he didn't want us to be separated.

With that sentiment in mind, I left for the country of India. There wasn't much that I needed to take with me aside from a few changes of clothes because I had discovered that my teacher to be was a renunciant who lived in a remote location on the shore of the Yamuna River. While my father thought she lived in Delhi, she had moved since he'd last heard of her and no one had gotten much word of her since. Even with the tip that I'd been given about her location, it took me a week of following the river north before I found her, and it took me another week of persistence to get her to accept me as her student. She didn't live in a normal home. There was a cave upstream of where I'd found her that she used as her shelter when she needed it.

The best way to describe her was beautiful but terrifying. She was a rather tall Water Monitor with a sleek, strong build and claws and teeth that should have scared anyone with a little common sense away. Her skin consisted of sleek grey-green scales with occasional light yellow scales mixed in. What was even more beautiful was the way she painted her body. She used white and bright yellow paint and had a stripe of each color on each part of her body. Over all of this, she wore a simple brown halter top and a skirt that came just to her mid-thigh. Both of her pieces of clothing looked as if they'd been made from rags, and they probably were. The entire time I was there, I never saw her with any other clothing.

While I was there I also discovered that she had a quick, but hard to aggravate, temper. Most of the time she was very laid back, though her physical exercises were harsh on the body. She spent more of her time doing yoga and meditating than anything else, and that was the first thing she taught me. If I had control over my body, my mind was the next easiest thing to conquer and then after that my spirit and power. I often spent hours in meditation with her each day. At times I believed that she was dead because she was barely breathing. After a few months, though, I stopped being bothered by her lack of breathing and was able to focus enough on my own breathing to control it considerably better but not as well as her. I learned that, to her, physical fitness was as important as mental and spiritual fitness.

While other renunciants were vegetarian, she was still a carnivore as her species didn't do well on vegetable diets. She caught all her food from the river and every day she went swimming. I was excited to find out that she loved swimming as much as I did and oftentimes we would swim for several hours without realizing the passage of time. Catching my own food also wasn't a problem but I wasn't as good at swimming or hunting as she was. It didn't take me long to understand that until then I had lived a life of privilege compared to the life she had chosen. In many ways, my life had made me soft and when I understood that her harsh physical training was trying to harden me to the rigors of life I was more ready to accept what she had to teach me and I faced each challenge she presented with a new outlook and hardened resolve.

It's needless to say that I felt that there was nothing she couldn't teach me. She seemed to know everything and anything I wanted to know about just about anything including my power. In the time that I spent with her I learned a lot, but I also knew that when the time came for me to leave her I still wouldn't know nearly as much as I wanted to. Near the end of my time with her, she was teaching me about powers that I didn't even know my family had. I had a knack for clairvoyance, as it turned out, and a very basic understanding of telekinesis. On top of those two things she taught me to sense auras not just in people but in my surroundings. For some reason she started to teach me the tools I needed to continue my training on my own. At first it confused me but then I got a phone call from Sly asking me to come home.

Sly explained that he had talked to some man named McSweeny who used to run with his father in their heyday. This man had told him about something called the Cooper Vault. It was a huge vault on a secret island that only a Cooper could open and it was brimming with treasure from as far back as his family line went. He sounded passionate about it. It was a deep kind of passion that made it impossible for me to decline when he asked me to come home and help them get to it. Before I could ask why he couldn't get to it, he explained to me someone else known only as Dr. M. Apparently this man had gotten to the island first, probably decades before, and turned it into a stronghold while he tried to break into the vault. Sly was convinced that without a team of world-class thieves he wasn't going to get into that vault and I was honored that he wanted me on that team.

My teacher accepted my request to leave with ease. She told me that she knew all along that I was going to leave long before she could teach me all the things that she wanted me to learn, but then she added that now I had the tools to continue my learning for myself. I told her that one day I would come back to continue my training and then I departed for Paris to join Sly and Bentley as they prepared to travel the world in search of these thieves that were going to make up their team.

The plane ride home was almost too slow for me to stand. There was a lot on my mind. Again I was reminded of the distance I'd started to feel from Sly about half way through my time away. I wondered if things would be the same when I came back or if they would have changed while I was gone. There was never any word about Bentley's condition or about whether it improved or got worse. My worst nightmare sometimes was coming home to find out that Bents suffered from some kind of complication and was left completely disabled. I couldn't imagine that poor turtle being stuck inside of a body that couldn't function. My other worst nightmare was often coming home to Sly with another woman that he told me nothing about. I sincerely hoped within myself that both of those nightmares would never become reality.

Once the plane landed I took a breath to calm myself. Sly and Bentley were going to meet me at the waiting area and then take me back to the safe house. I exited the plane and listened as individuals spoke excited French around me. Sly had tried to tutor me in the language but I hadn't been around long enough to learn it very well and I couldn't understand it at all. It took a good fifteen minutes to make my way through the crowds and back to the waiting area. I didn't see them at first but then it was like the sea of people parted and there they were. They looked just like I remembered, except for Bent's wheelchair. It seemed like he'd made a lot of modifications to it. They were both standing there smiling at me like dorks, Sly was holding my luggage, and the sight of it made me smile, too.

Sly waved at me and I couldn't help but wave back like an idiot. He gave it another couple of seconds before he gestured for me to come to him and I obeyed without question. If I hadn't been in public, I would have run. As I approached him he set down my luggage and opened his arms to embrace me. I felt kind of stupid thinking that it was like a scene from a romance movie, but it was kind of how it felt as I walked up to him and accepted his embrace. He held me tightly and I buried my head in his chest.

"Welcome home" he whispered to me and it was the impact of those words that caused my shell to break. I admitted to myself that all my worries had been stupid and there was nothing I should have been worrying about and I felt all my anxiety melt away.

"I missed you guys" I whispered back to him and I felt him squeeze me a bit harder before he let me go. Immediately I felt the need to hug Bentley, too. It was then that I got a good up-close look at his new wheelchair and all of the fantastic gadgets that he had attached to it. It thrilled me in so many ways to see that all my worrying had been for nothing.

We stood there smiling at each other until Bentley cleared his throat and said "We should get back to the safe house."

"Right" I said with a smile and a nod at Sly. He nodded back and then an idea came to me. "I get to push Bentley!" I said excitedly.

"That's really not necessary" Bentley began to say, but I cut him off.

"I don't care what's necessary. It's something I want to do" I said as I walked around behind him and took the handles of his wheelchair in my hands.

"I know I can't argue with you" he replied as I began to push him.

Sly led us out to a nice black van with a wheelchair ramp in the back and put my luggage in the trunk before rushing to open the door for me. I was struck by the awareness that this was not the team van and that it had been left behind in Canada at the time of that final heist. Before returning, I had been unaware of how everything I saw and did was going to remind me of that final heist. The guilt about what happened to Bentley and the heavy feeling of failure drifted back into my mind after having been gone for so long. I tried to push it away but it was almost impossible just to not think about it.

"It'll be fine" Sly said, sensing my distress. He was probably right.

"How did you two get over it?" I asked and they both knew what was on my mind.

"Time" Bentley answered. "We've had to face it every day because there isn't anything that doesn't remind us of what happened. Eventually we realized it was time to move on."

"That sounds a lot easier than it seems" I replied to him, looking at him in the rearview mirror.

"It's a lot harder than it seems" he said. I enjoyed being exposed to his wisdom again.

"Give it time and things will get better" Sly said as he placed a hand on my knee.

"Okay, I'll try" I said with a sad smile.

We finally made it to the safe house and Sly helped me get my things inside and unpack what little I had taken with me. It was so little that it only took us a few minutes to get it all put away where it needed to go and then we all sat down together. A sense of business overcame us.

"So, what is it that we have to do?" I asked.

"Well," Bentley said with a smile, "first we're going to find Murray."

My eyes widened and I felt a bit of excitement at seeing the hippo rejoin the gang again. "Where is he?" I asked.

"The last we've heard of him, he's in Venice, Italy" Bentley replied.

"Why?" was the first thing I thought to ask.

"Well, to start, we got word that he ended up in the Australian Outback studying something called Dreamtime from an Aboriginal guru" Bentley began to explain. "I guess things are going well because his teacher sent him on a walk about all over the world and the last time he was seen was in Venice."

"So let's go to Venice" I said decisively.

"It's more complicated than that" Sly said. "We don't know what he's doing there and to make things worse Venice is the turf of Don Octavio, a local mob boss."

"What's the story on this Octavio guy?" I asked, curious to know what we would be dealing with.

"Well, he used to be a celebrity in opera" Sly began.

"Gross" I replied.

"Exactly," Sly continued, "with the changing times his career was ended before it could really take off. He kept a few fans, mobsters, who got him into the mob business. I don't want to cross paths with him if I can avoid it. His turf is notorious for being dangerous."

After letting it sink in, I stood up and looked at Sly and Bentley. "One thing is for sure. If we don't go to Venice we might never see Murray at all. One way to make sure this doesn't happen is to not do it. So let's get going."


	2. Chapter 1 - Dreams

Instead of driving to our destination, or flying, or going by some incredibly unconventional mean (since I got back I found out Bentley was trying to build a teleporter), we took the train from France to Italy. The boys, of course, could afford the best which meant buying out an entire passenger car just for us. We each could have had our own cabin but we chose to all stay together. I'd never ridden a train before. The scenery that could be seen from the window was beautiful and breathtaking. I secretly promised myself that I would be taking trains more often from now on.

"..ya… Maya" Sly's hand touched my shoulder and I jumped, finally breaking out of my trance. He chuckled. "You've been staring out that window for almost an hour now. You're missing the war meeting."

"Sorry" I said as I turned my body back towards him and Bentley.

Sly smiled at me and turned back to Bentley. "So explain again what the plan is for Maya's sake."

"Well, it's not much of a plan" Bentley said. "We're going to have to get our hands on some blueprints of the important buildings in the city when get there. For one, we'll need something on the police station. It's most likely that if Murray is anywhere, he's there. He is a known criminal so there's a chance that he's been arrested and taken in by the police. While Sly and I are checking out the police headquarters, I want you to go talk to the locals, Maya."

"What for?" I asked.

"Information" he said. "I need you to gather information on important buildings in the area and upcoming events. We need to know where to avoid in order to keep away from Octavio. We don't want to cause any trouble if we can avoid it. You're not only a woman, but it's not widely known who you are or that you've joined our gang, so this kind of reconnaissance is perfect for you."

"By locals, then, I take it you mean mobsters" I said.

"Exactly" he replied. "They'll be far less suspicious of someone like you. It will get suspicious if you start asking about Murray, though, so leave the investigation of him up to us."

"So I'll act as a tourist interested in the sights and activities and maybe secretly interested in the opera that used to be around here" I said. "That way I'll get more information out of the mobsters."

"What makes you think they don't hate tourists and that they won't kill you just to get you to shut up and stop bothering them?" Sly asked.

"They're men, right?" I asked. I knew I was assuming a lot.

"Sure, but what does that have to do with anything?" Sly asked.

All I did was smirk at him. For a flirt he could be really clueless at times. I was about to give him a hint about it when he suddenly said "Hey…" but he was cut off by Bentley's next comment.

"It's getting dark out" Bentley said.

"So it is" I said distractedly as I turned my head to look out the window.

"We should try to get some sleep before we get to Venice" Bentley continued.

"That's a good idea" I said, realizing that just him bringing it up made me so much more tired than I had been before that moment. I then looked around the small passenger cabin we were in and realized that it was awfully small for three people and then I thought that it didn't make sense for all three of us to stay in the same cabin when we had the whole car. "Are we done here?" I asked Bentley.

"We've talked about everything I have to talk about" he said.

"Good" I said as I stood up, bent on going to get my own cabin.

"Hey, where are you going?" Sly asked as he grabbed my arm.

"To find a place to sleep" I answered nonchalantly.

"I'm coming with you" he said.

"There's plenty of room for each of us to have our own space" I replied, not really getting the hint. I honestly wasn't thinking very hard about anything other than sleep.

"Come here" Sly said as he pulled me back to him.

"Sly?!" I exclaimed as I fell back into his lap. He locked his arms around my waist and held me there.

"Do you really want your own space?" he whispered huskily in my ear.

My brain became frazzled and I couldn't think of an answer to his question. I sat there with my mouth hanging open until a squeeze to my midsection brought me back to my senses, which probably wasn't what he wanted but is what happened.

"I'm thinking about sleep, Sly" I finally responded, turning to look at his face. "If you would like to join me, that's totally up to you."

"Don't you want me to join you?" he asked, looking a bit disappointed and hurt. It occurred to me that I hadn't been thinking as part of a couple because it had been a long time since we'd been together as a couple.

"Sure" I softly answered and I put a hand on his face. "Sorry."

"It's fine" he said with a soft smile on his face. We stared at each other for what seemed like forever before he stood up without warning, lifting me up with him as well. A squeak of terror escaped me at the sudden motion and I clung to his shoulders. "See you in the morning Bentley" Sly said as he slid open the door to the compartment with me still in hand. After stepping out into the hallway and heading up to the front of the car, he placed me back on my feet.

"I'm sorry, Sly," I said with a frown as he opened the door to his chosen cabin. "It's just been so long since I had to think as part of a group or a couple."

"It's really fine" he said as he led me into the room. Part of me was waiting to see a whole dinner set up in that room, like the last date that he and I had been on where he surprised me. I couldn't really say that it was disappointing that there was nothing there, but at the same time it was a little disappointing. It didn't look any different than the last compartment we'd been in. I sat down on one of the benches and watched as Sly opened an overhead compartment.

"What are you doing?" I asked him as he pulled on a large bag in the compartment.

"Put your feet up on the bench, you'll see" he said with a smile. It took him a couple more seconds but he finally got the bag in the compartment open and a bunch of pillows and a particularly comfortable blanket fell out of it. He paused to look at what had fallen and then continued to pull out cushions and more pillows from the compartment. I watched, transfixed by what he was doing, as he finally got it all out and began to arrange it in the space between the two benches. Before I knew it, he had made what looked like the coziest little pillow nest I had ever seen and he laid the blanket over it. "You've got sleep on your mind, right?" he asked.

"Yeah" I answered as I watched him lay down.

"Well, get down here" he said as he offered an arm. Lured down by the comfort that I saw in that pillow nest, I happily joined Sly and my perceptions of it had been right. I imagined this is what it would be like to sleep on a cloud. My whole body relaxed and I didn't even stop to wonder where he could have found all these fantastically soft pillows. I curled up next to him and laid my head on his chest. All I could think about was how I just wanted to snuggle up to him and sleep here forever. "Hey" Sly whispered in my ear.

"Hmm?" I replied.

"Are you ok?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked as I looked up at him.

"You're just distant" he said.

"Yeah, I know" I replied. "It's not that I'm trying to be, it's just weird to be interacting with people again. I spent all that time away as a renunciant with my master. Of course it's going to be hard to adjust back to interaction. Sorry if I'm worrying you."

"It's fine. I just wanted to make sure that you didn't change your mind about being part of the gang while you were out there in the world" he said.

"I would never" I replied with a smile. "No matter where I go I'll always come home."

"That's good to hear" he said and it sounded like he was truly reassured of my commitment not just to him but to the gang. I knew that it probably still stung that Murray left so suddenly and that I chose to do the same not long after he had. It had to be hard on the group. I was sure that they felt as if their world fell apart.

"Just don't forget that I left my training to come back here" I told him.

"You're right" he said. "Do you think Murray will do the same?"

"You know I can't speak for him, but I know that he probably feels the same way that I did. I bet he misses his friends, even if what he's doing is important, and his loyalty to you is something that you should never question" I said. "Now, let's stop worrying about things we can't control right now and get some sleep. There's not a lot we'll be doing if we're not well rested."

"True" Sly replied and then I felt him lift my face up by my chin. He looked into my tired eyes and smiled. "I'm glad you came back."

Warmth filled me at those words and there wasn't even a thought of resistance as he kissed me softly. I surrendered to sleep shortly after that.

I found myself in a dark damp room with the sound of dripping water in the background. No matter where I looked, there was no sign of where I was.

"What?" I asked myself. There was the sound of footsteps behind me and when I turned around there was an illuminated scene of Sly in a room full of lasers, though none of them were in a grid like you would find in security. They didn't seem to have a purpose.

"I'm sorry, Maya" he said and he turned his back on me and began to walk away.

"Wait, Sly" I said as I tried to follow him but he disappeared into a hole of darkness that appeared in the scene before me.

"What's going on?" I asked as I stopped.

"Where's Sly?" Bentley's voice asked from behind me. "Is he…?"

When I turned, there was no one there. Now I was standing at the base of a huge mountain. At the top of it was a shining light of some kind. It began to approach me as I stared at it. After a moment I realized that it wasn't coming to me but I was going to it. I had started to fly up toward the light without even thinking about it. When I finally set back down on the ground in front of it, I could see that it was a vault door. The door was decorated with the shape of a raccoon face across the entire width and breadth of it. In the middle of that face, there was a huge dial which had nothing on it but the shape of a cane.

My hand suddenly felt heavy and I looked down to see that in my grasp was the Cooper cane. I lifted it up, holding it next to the shape on the vault in my field of vision and realized that the two things were identical. So the cane was the key to the vault? I held it up and pressed it into the space shaped specifically for it. At first nothing happened and I thought that perhaps I was wrong. I pulled the cane back out and let my arm fall to my side. Everything was silent for a moment but then suddenly the dial on the door spun and then the outside of it followed before the bars connected to the dial disconnected and dropped down, allowing the door to open. The door swung open of its own accord and a bright light came from inside for just a moment.

When the light died down, there was darkness inside of the vault, but it felt as if it was drawing me in. I submitted to its call, walking in slowly. Again I felt a change in my hand and looked down to see that the cane had disappeared. Apparently the only reason I needed it was to open that door. Behind me the door shut and I was again left in total darkness. Instead of standing still this time I kept walking, feeling as if there was some reason I was here. Eventually there was another light that began to appear in the distance before me and it steadily grew closer as I continued forward. Before I knew it, the darkness opened up into a cave and I walked through that cave to a lit room on the other side of it. It wasn't possible that I had walked into that room, as I was standing in the center of it now, and it was a platform that looked to be suspended by lasers of the same kind that I'd seen before.

I paused to turn back the way I had come and saw that there was a raccoon face shaped entrance to the room, but the only way to where I was from it was a long jump or death by laser. The only conclusion that I could come to was that I had walked straight from the darkness and been placed in the center of this room.

"Did any of it mean anything to him?" asked a very familiar voice behind me. I turned to see a raccoon there. He didn't sound exactly like Sly but he sounded very similar and he had white fur where a raccoon should be grey. His build was strong and he was tall and he turned to look at me with his brown eyes. I felt like I should know him. As the rest of his body turned with him, I saw the Cooper cane in his right hand. "It's hard to think that he walked away from all of this."

"Sly?" I asked. I wanted to know who he was talking about and I didn't know why but I thought it was Sly. As I tried to approach him, there was a gust of wind and he turned into mist and disappeared. "Come back" I called to the wind, reaching as if my grabbing just a bit of that mist would bring him back to me.

"He never really was the type for commitment" another voice called behind me again and I turned to see that stupid fox-faced woman. "And you didn't have the power to change him anyway."

"Shut up!" I growled and I lunged at her, only to have her disappear from between my claws. I looked down at my hands in surprise. If I had only been a bit faster I would have had her.

"You could have had all the power in the world, but you threw it away" my father's voice finally came from behind me. I turned to face him. He was Rajan the drug lord again. "You threw it all away for that man. You destroyed your own gang… your family!"

"No! I saved you!" I cried.

"You have no home to return to" he continued.

"I have Sly and his gang now!" I replied.

"Do you?" all of their voices replied at once and I looked around to see that now I was surrounded by them. I spun in place once to look at all of them before my vision settled back on Sly, who was now standing where my father had just been.

"Denying it won't change anything" he said.

Before I could ask what he meant, they all disappeared and so did the floor. I was falling into a black abyss and I felt terror rush through me. A scream left my lips and for some reason my body started to shake violently.

"Maya! Maya!" I could hear Sly's voice but I couldn't see him.

"Help me!" I called out to him.

"Maya, wake up!" I heard him shout and a sharp sting on my face suddenly woke me from my dream. It was like falling into reality, and for a moment I was very confused. I looked around, trying to figure out what had happened but the only thing that really registered in my mind was a very worried looking Sly in front of me, holding my shoulders and the still-present sting in my cheek.

"What happened?" I finally asked.

"I think you were dreaming" Sly replied as he placed a hand on my cheek. "Does it hurt?"

I didn't quite understand until I realized what that sting must have been earlier. "No, it doesn't hurt anymore." I replied.

"Good. I couldn't figure out how else to get you out of whatever nightmare you were having so I just slapped you" he said.

"That's fine. Did I wake you?" I asked.

"No" he replied. "Actually I woke up about a half an hour ago. We're almost there and it's already daylight but you were sleeping so soundly I didn't want to wake you."

"Oh" I said as I looked up and the light coming in the window could have only been daylight.

"Feel like getting ready?" he asked.

"Yeah" I replied, still feeling a bit shaken and out of it.

"Good" he said with a smile and he slid open the door to our compartment. I figured he was going to check on Bentley as I slipped into a new change of clothes. During my time away from India I'd fallen out of the traditional attire and now went for a V-neck, black, belly t-shirt and black yoga pants. All I had with me at the moment was a pair of black ballet flats. The rest of my shoes were mixed in with our luggage so I just wore what I had.

The door slid open again and there was Sly. He held out my pair of white Binocucom from forever ago. I took them like they were some kind of relic that would break easily if I were to handle them too harshly. He also held out a small earpiece for me. I put it in my ear as if it were second nature. My job here would be to stay away from the boys while they were busy so of course I'd need an inconspicuous way to keep in touch.

"We'll call a taxi from the station to take us to our hideout" Sly explained. "Bentley found an old unused property that was up for sale for cheap because the owners couldn't get rid of it."

"Okay" I said.

"I'm glad you're back" he said. "What happened to the traditional clothes, though?"

"Oh, that's right" I said, remembering something slightly off topic. I reached for my bag and went in the front of it to pull out the tail ring Sly had gotten for me so long ago. It looked out of place on this outfit but I wanted to wear it again. I slid it on my tail and then brought it in front of me to inspect it for any damage from travel. It looked like the day he had gotten it for me. He didn't say anything, he just smiled instead.

"Things are almost back to normal" Sly said.

"Right" I said with a smile. "Now, let's go get Murray."

"It's time for our gang to be complete again" Sly replied as he looked at his cane clutched in his right hand.

A voice came over the train's intercom letting us know that we were arriving in Venice. Sly and I looked at each other and nodded. We started to gather up the things we'd unpacked and get them ready to go. For the first time since I returned I felt like a real member of the gang again and it was time to get serious and get our friend back.


	3. Chapter 2 - French Toast

**Hey everybody! I'm glad to see that I've already got some interest in this story. Special thanks to Wolf Boy 95 for favoriting me and to antaurilover 685 for favoriting this story. Another special thanks goes to Destiny Xavier16 for favoriting and following this story and for the great review to kick off the second installment of my Sly Cooper story series! **

**I honestly didn't see the double entendre in the title of this chapter until I was about a hundred words or so from being done with it. If you happen to see it and want to laugh with me then feel free and if you don't and want to know what I'm going on about just message me and I'll tell you what I'm thinking. Telling everyone in my author's note would be a spoiler! If I remember I'll put it in my next author's note. **

**That being said, I'm finding this story to be a lot like writing the first one. At first I don't really feel like writing a chapter and I think it's going to take forever but then after I get the first sentence or two out and play some missions in the game the story just flows out of me like a river that half the time I can't get into a word document fast enough. It's kind of like that school project you didn't know you were going to like. You got to choose your own subject and everything but you didn't know how much you would enjoy it until you forced yourself to sit down and do it and then you can't stop. That's kind of how I've felt. Anyway, please enjoy the latest chapter of the story and be on the lookout for the next one (hopefully coming soon!)**

We got started late in the evening. It had taken a while for us to set up shop in the cozy little building Bentley had bought for us. There was a lower floor not accessible from the outside of the building and without windows. We set this up as our sleeping quarters. The top floor had windows facing the canal and several windows on the other sides of the building. They were all boarded up when we got there and we only bothered to un-board the ones facing the canal. Lucky for us, the place had come with some old furniture so we didn't have to worry about not having any. The city honestly wasn't as beautiful as I hoped it would be. There was just something off about it.

It being so close to nightfall, there wasn't a lot that I could do as a tourist without looking suspicious so instead I was across town in a small grocery store buying supplies for the days ahead. I had listened slightly to the conversation Sly had with Bentley before he went to break into the police station and Bentley wasn't wrong that this place was run by the mafia. On every street corner there was a thug. They were the police as far as I was concerned and as a criminal I didn't find that I was any more assured by their presence than I would have been if they were cops.

"Okay, I'm in" I heard Sly say over the com.

Bentley's theory had been that the police would have records of all the criminals in Venice and because Murray had been spotted it would have probably been recorded. I had to agree but I didn't think messing with the cops our first night in was the best move in the world.

"Hey, Murray? Is that you?" I heard Sly whisper. I figured he was near the jail cells.

"Murray?" an oily voice replied. "That name's a stain on my pants, bro… whuh?!"

"Oh no…" I said out loud. I immediately recognized that voice. It could be no other than Dimitri.

I listened as Dimitri did what he did best, be an ass, and internally panicked as he called for the cops. We did not need a run in with the cops. Sly stopped him by offering to cut him a deal, which meant letting him out of the cell and then acting as live bait so he could escape out the back.

"He's not worth it, Sly" I said loud enough for the com to pick it up.

Sly flat out ignored what I had to say and continued bargaining with him. Dimitri offered to find Murray and give him the message that we were looking for him. For about five minutes after that there was the sound of Sly shuffling around but mixed with it was another chillingly familiar voice. In the background, rattling off some presentation, I heard none other than the voice of the vixen I hated so much.

"What is she doing in Venice?" I asked but at this point I might as well have been talking to myself. It unnerved me a little because with her here there was a higher chance that we'd have to deal with the cops, which as I listened to her speak I found out they were actually hired mercenaries. They didn't sound very smart when I heard them talk but mercenaries were still worse than regular cops.

I shook my head as I finally took my cart of groceries to the register. We actually did have money, being thieves and all, so actually buying the groceries instead of stealing them would help us lay low until we found Murray. I also didn't mind doing things the "right" way every now and again.

Sly must have finally done what he was set out to do because I heard him talking to Dimitri again. There was the swing of a cell door followed by Dimitri's voice but louder this time. He told Sly to go to Rialto Bridge to meet up with Murray and as promised Sly was going to distract the cops. It would be out of my way to go in that direction, but I wanted to be available in case Sly needed backup.

"Hello assorted meatheads… and lady" I heard Sly announce. "Anyone feel like some exercise?"

"Cooper?" I heard the vixen say. "Grab 'em men!"

There was the distinct sound of running followed by the sound of a door shutting. After that there was the last thing I wanted to hear.

"You've got some serious nerve showing up in my squad room" the fox said.

"I was concerned we were growing apart" Sly replied.

"Then let's spend some quality time together in my interrogation cell" she said.

"So forward, what happened to the demure girl I used to know?" he asked. Sly was flirting with that damn cop. I was torn between it being a distraction method on his part and the possibility that he was actually serious. Either way I was mad. I took a moment to hide the groceries I was carrying and then I took off at a run, taking to the rooftops for the chance that it would get me to Sly faster.

"She grew up and stopped taking grief from guys like you" the cop answered.

"Guys like me?" Sly asked. "Are you saying I've got some competition for your affections?" That line made me growl.

"You're the only man in my sights right now" she replied and then I could hear shots being fired.

I picked up speed and made it to the bridge right as Murray popped out of the sewers in front of Sly. They seemed to be having a small reunion while she was still taking poor shots in their direction.

"Man, you're in it again!" I heard Murray say before they both jumped down the manhole.

Inspector Fox ran up to the manhole as it closed and yelled "That's right, hide in the sewers like the rats you are!" Between her and Sly I was now rather infuriated and I did something I hadn't done in a long time. I electrically charged my body using my powers and I walked up behind her.

"Who's a rat?" I asked.

She turned around in shock and held up her pistol to take a shot at me, but before she could I jabbed my fingers into her side and released the electricity built up inside of me. The effect was much like what would occur if I hit her with a Taser. Her body jolted for a bit and then she hit the ground in temporary paralysis.

"I don't know any rats who can do that" I said as I kicked her shock pistol away. We didn't need her following us.

"Maya, what did you just do?" I heard Sly say over the intercom.

"Just made sure the cop lady won't be following us" I answered.

"You better not have hurt her" he said.

"I shocked her to knock her out" I replied.

"You can't go around electrocuting people" Sly said. This was the first time he'd opposed the use of my ability.

"Is this about her?" I asked.

"No" he answered, but I didn't believe him.

"I'll be back at the safe house when you get there" I said and I took out my earpiece. After retrieving my groceries, I made my way straight back to the little building we were hiding out in. It was fairly dark out now and using my powers had been a bit exhausting. As I walked in, I set my earpiece on the table next to Bentley.

I put the groceries away and then took a moment to peek my head in by Bentley. Sly wasn't back yet. I didn't feel like waiting for him to get back to talk to him. "Tell Sly that I'll be sleeping if he needs anything" I told Bentley.

"Sure thing" Bentley said before going back to monitoring the conversation between Murray and Sly. I was too miffed to care. On the one hand I wanted to talk to Murray and hear what he had been up to but on the other hand I was mad that Sly not only had flirted with the inspector but then scolded me for making sure she wouldn't follow us. It's not like I killed her, and even if I did why should it have mattered? I knew I was jealous. There was a little jealous flame burning in my gut but I ignored it as I lay down in my bed and pulled the sheets over my body.

Before I fell asleep I found myself asking questions about what had happened. Had I gone too far? Was Sly right and had I overreacted out of anger and jealousy? I wouldn't know unless I talked to the boys about it, and even then I didn't really want to talk to Sly about it.

The next morning when I woke up, I noticed quickly that Sly was lying in his own bed on the other side of the room from me. I couldn't help but wonder if we were fighting right now. Bentley was sleeping too so I quietly got out of bed and went upstairs to start breakfast. I figured that those two had gotten a plan of action together last night before coming down to bed. Maybe I was over thinking this thing with Sly.

I cracked some eggs into a bowl and poured in milk before adding some sugar and cinnamon to the mix. French toast seemed a good way to start off the day. Well, to start off what was left of the day. It was already almost two o'clock in the evening. I hadn't realized how late all of us had been out the night before and I still probably had a little jet lag. After digging through some of the things that hadn't been unpacked yet I came upon our frying pan and put it on the stove. Soon, the smell of fresh French toast wafted through the safe house, bringing the boys out of their slumber. As I loaded slices of toast onto plates they wandered into our small kitchen and over to the "center of operations" table where I placed the plates in front of them. Bentley was already dressed for the day so I was willing to bet that he'd woken up and gotten ready before badgering Sly out of bed because contrary to the turtle the raccoon was only in a pair of baggy blue sweatpants.

"Good morning" I said to them as I put syrup and sugar in the center of the table.

"Morning" Bentley replied. Sly just yawned.

Before Sly could even pick up his fork I swiped the plate out from in front of him.

"Maya, I'm hungry" he whined.

"Well, before you eat we need to talk" I replied.

"Ok, shoot" he said.

"You're mad at me about what I did to that cop yesterday" I stated.

"Maybe a little" he replied.

"No, you are" I retorted.

"Ok, so I think you went overboard" he replied. "You don't need to go around electrocuting Carmelita."

"Is it because it was Carmelita or because I electrocuted someone?" I asked, putting emphasis on her name this time.

He grunted and looked away from me.

"That's what I thought" I said as I set the plate back down in front of him.

"It's not what you think" he said.

"Oh, you only flirted with her and then got mad at me for stopping her from following you" I said as I laid a piece of toast on the pan for myself. "If it had been a thug there wouldn't have been a problem."

"You shouldn't give her any more reason to kill you" he argued. I didn't believe a word of it.

"Which one of us is it, Sly?" I asked. "Is it me or her?"

"Who do you think?" he asked in response.

"I want to hear it" I said as I turned back to the pan and flipped my toast.

"You" he replied. "Why would you think otherwise?"

I heard a bit of pain in his voice and it hit me suddenly that I could have been making this up all along. After all, it had been me who was jealous, and I was the one who had a reason to think he was on her side, or that he was taking sides at all. I wanted to believe that he was lying to me because I knew he'd had a thing for her in the past. Maybe I wanted it to be about her and when I had sounded angry last night Sly thought it best to give me my space. Even after I thought about it, though, I couldn't completely lose my newfound feelings of insecurity. At the same time I couldn't stay mad at him without being mad at myself for being mad. I flipped my toast onto my plate and turned off the stove.

"I'm sorry, Sly" I said as I sat down next to them at the table with my own plate. "I was being an idiot."

"At least you can admit it" he said with a small grin. "I made you worry."

That small admission from him made me smile, too.

"Well, when you two are done being idiots, I'd like to get on with the plan" Bentley said. We both looked at Bentley, who had already finished his breakfast and was breaking out the equipment for the slideshow. Sly and I looked at each other and our plates, which hadn't been touched. I hadn't thought we were fighting for that long, but I supposed it could have been long enough for him to finish.

"You talk, we'll eat" Sly said.

"And listen" I added when I saw the look on Bentley's face.

"Sure" he said and he finished getting his equipment ready as Sly and I finally dug into our breakfasts. He finally got everything ready and turned on the projector as I placed a second fresh piece of toast on Sly's plate and my own.

"Murray refuses to join the gang until the commitment to his guru has been fulfilled" Bentley began. "Whether we like it or not, we've got to deal with Venice's tar problems in order to, as Murray puts it, 'make the black water run pure.' Thanks to Inspector Fox's fine detective work, we already know that Don Octavio is somehow connected. As non-law operatives, we'll be able to tackle this situation in a more head-on fashion. First, we break into Octavio's opera house."

"Hold on" I said, cutting him off. "I thought we were going to avoid Octavio at all costs."

"Questions should be held to the end" Bentley said with one hand raised to give him an air of authority. "Anyway… I was saying, if he's hiding anything we'll find it. We should also keep a close eye on the Don. Some photographic evidence of him connected to the tar might be enough to get the old mobster put away. Of course, meanwhile, I'll monitor local communication frequencies and Maya will be acting as our informant. With some luck, we might pick up some quality intel. Now, questions."

I didn't waste any time. "I thought we were going to avoid the Don and his mobsters at all costs. What happened to that?"

"Well" Bentley said. "Obviously there's been a critical change of plans. We have no choice but to look into what is causing the tar problems because we have to fix them if we want Murray back."

"You knew this would happen, didn't you?" I asked. Bentley was a smart turtle and I wouldn't have been surprised if he said yes.

"I had an inkling that something might happen" Bentley said as he shut down the projector. I shook my head with a smile as I turned to Sly.

"Do you want another piece?" I asked, referring to his empty plate.

"Yes, please" he said as he held the plate out. I took it and went back to the stove for a moment. There was enough left for three more pieces so I looked back at Bentley.

"Hey, Bents, do you want another piece of toast?" I asked.

"I'm fine" he replied.

"You're going to make the two of us fight over the last piece?" I said with a mock frown on my face.

"Better you two fight about it than it goes to waste" he replied as he placed the equipment on his lap and rolled out of the room to put it away.

"True" I said. It didn't take long for all three pieces to be done and I put two on Sly's plate and one on mine.

"Hey, I thought we were going to fight over it" he said as I put his plate back in front of him.

"I'm not trying to make a habit of us fighting" I replied. "Besides, if I'm playing the tourist I'll have a chance to go out and get something if I get hungry. You need the food and the energy Mr. Master Thief."

"That's the first time you've ever told me I was a master thief" he said.

"Maybe it's finally shining through after all this time" I told him and I stuck my tongue out at him.

"Very funny" he said. "You just haven't been spending enough time around me."

"Well, I was gone for a very long time" I replied.

"After this is over, we're going to have to make up for that lost time" he said.

"This as in Venice or this as in the Cooper Vault job?" I asked.

"Are we a little hasty?" he asked in reply. I blushed under my fur when I realized how that sounded.

Quickly regaining my composure, I smiled at him and said "I don't know if 'hasty' is the word for it since we've already waited almost a year to spend some real time together."

"Those couple of cute little dates will be nothing compared to what I'm going to do for you" Sly said and then his eyes wandered my body. I could practically feel it through the table between us. "And to you" he added.

It was like someone had lit a match to my fur. I felt like I was going to burn alive from the blush spreading from my face to practically my whole body. "Sly!" I shouted out of embarrassment and I punched him in the shoulder before hiding my face in my hands. "Just go get ready, at least get dressed."

"Don't you like this outfit?" he asked me, trying his best to look innocent in the moment.

"It's not an outfit" I said. "And you have to get going soon." I calmed down and finished my toast. He scarfed the rest of his down and set the plate in the sink, doing as I'd told him and going to get ready. I sighed to myself as my brain went over the events of the morning and then I got up to do the dishes. It was already pretty obvious to me that this Venice job was going to be hard. Not only would I have to pretend that I wasn't used to being around mobsters but I was going to have to pretend to be a tourist, which isn't something I'd ever done, and try to make it all seem inconspicuous. On top of that the lady cop and her friends were probably going up against Octavio and his men as well, so that added extra fun to the equation. I could only hope that this would be settled soon, as I didn't want to be in the middle of some kind of mob versus police warfare.

Sly, now dressed for the day, came flying up the stairs from the first floor room and gathered his gear off of the coffee table in our "living room."

"I've got to get going. Bentley already has a job for me" he said. I knew he was talking to me but I kept cleaning, nodding to let him know I'd heard him. I paused from my cleaning when I felt a hand on my waist and turned my head to see what was up. Sly's lips met my own for a moment and then he smiled.

"Good luck out there" he said. "Stay safe, okay? These mobsters don't play games."

"I know, Sly" I said. "I used to be just like them."

His eyes widened for a second in realization of things he'd probably forgotten about. Even before I left there were times when he acted like I'd never been part of the Klaww Gang.

"You stay safe" I told him. "I'm not the one performing illegal activities today and I'll call if I need any help."

"Okay" he said, seeming satisfied with what I'd said. "See you tonight, then."

"Yeah" I said and he let me go. "And no flirting with the lady cop!" I shouted as he ran out the door.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll try!" I heard him shout back before the door shut behind him. I sighed and finished the last dish. This was definitely going to be a stressful job.


	4. Chapter 3 - Unfaithful

**Hello again everyone! It's time for Puddingz's honorable mentions. Nothing tells me I've taken too much time to update more than a list of people who have favorited and followed since the last time I updated. I have to apologize for my tardiness and say that it's going to be an ongoing thing. I don't know when I'll have time to write again. Between school and work I've been incredibly busy (like no free-time busy) and I have a lot of big projects that need to get done in the next few weeks. On top of that 'tis the season and I'm falling into the seasonal mood. I want to work on a story for Bernard the elf from The Santa Clause, one for N from Pokemon White/Black, and various others. I promise that I'll update this one before posting any new stories, though. On to the honorable mentions:****  
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**I'd like to thank everyone who followed my story since the last time I updated. It's good to see new readers and even better to see familiar faces finding their way here, so I would like to thank the following individuals: Gangstalicious, Supernatural Believer, Vexxus Scyllian, srade9779, Lanesta19, Blackwolf94, zelda123118, and shadowkill590. Thanks for following my story and I hope I live up to everyone's expectations.**

**I'd also like to thank everyone who favorited my story: Fictionalwriter14, Gangstalicious, DelaneyP12, Vexxus Scyllian, and Lanesta 19. Thank you to those of you who already thought it was good enough to favorite it. I hope I can make it good enough to get the rest of my readers on board.**

**I'd like to individually thank the following readers who favorited, followed and took the time to review:  
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**ThisIsHope - I love that you're looking forward to the sequel, sorry for the long wait and thanks for the support. I hope I live up to your expectations.**

**Spartan10007 - Thanks for the support. I've loved having you along for the ride. I've been meaning to send you a message, so hopefully I'll get time right after I post this chapter.**

**Andilite - Welcome back! I felt like Maya's feelings for Sly would be strong and wouldn't just disappear. I honestly forgot about the tail ring for a while. The dream's meaning is a secret. Be patient. It will be revealed eventually. There will also be a (spoiler alert) lemon but it will be after Venice.**

**The Sly Cooper - Yes, the ending will probably be sappy but there will be a (spoiler alert) third story. I'm also sorry it took so long to update, school and work have been crazy.**

**AroraHybrid - Welcome aboard! I'm glad I could make you fall in love with Sly again. I'll try to update sooner next time. Thanks and keep reading!**

**If I forgot anyone in the mentions please let me know. I use my email to keep track of new follows and favorites. Don't forget that I have a tumblr account that I want to use to keep all my readers informed. The link is on my profile page. Now, on with the much awaited story!  
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I set out what was probably a half an hour after the boys. From what I could hear on the com now that I had it on they were under the opera house. Bentley said that he had to get his hands on one of Octavio's computers so he could hack his firewalls and find out what his operation was all about. It wasn't my job to worry about what they were doing, though. I needed to get some information of my own and it was still early evening so it made sense that someone might be out touring.

For this job, I had bought a purple peasant top and black straight skirt with a slit up the side to my knee. I wore my usual black flats and I found a small black purse that I could put a few essentials in. It was imperative that I look the part of a tourist. I also liked that I now had a reason to be a normal girl for once. All my life I'd done nothing but live up to my father's standards of being a woman and then when I went to India I became a renunciant who barely had anything at all. For once I felt like this was what a normal girl would do. Playing the part of the tourist was actually fun, too. I had gotten myself a small digital camera because part of me wanted to have normal memories from this as well. While walking around the city I was snapping shots of cool buildings and landmarks like the bridge we'd been at the night before.

After walking across the bridge I came across a Farris wheel lit up with all kinds of neon lights. I couldn't help but think that it was beautiful and take a picture of it. As I moved to get it from another angle I was approached by a large dog in a mask that made him look like he had a beak. He was obviously one of Octavio's men. Other than the mask, he wore a pink suit jacket over a white ruffled shirt. The cuffs and collar were orange and he wore an orange cummerbund. He carried a pistol and a flashlight with him in plain sight. At first he spoke in Italian but I didn't know any Italian at all.

"I speak English" I said, going to the most common language I could.

"What are you doing?" he asked, now in English making my life a lot easier.

"Just a tourist taking photos of some of the local beauty" I said with a smile.

"The owners would prefer that you don't take photos of the Ferris wheel" he said.

"But it's so beautiful" I argued. I already had a feeling that something was up if one of Octavio's men was telling me not to take pictures here.

"Photography is against the rules here" he said, sticking to his guns. I couldn't intimidate him because I was supposed to be playing a naïve and innocent tourist. Any signs that I knew what was up would give me away in a heartbeat if he was smart.

"I apologize. I'll allow you to delete them for yourself" I said as I handed over my camera. When he was satisfied with the state of my camera he handed it back. I double checked to see what he had done and found that he'd only deleted those photos of the Ferris wheel.

"If you would, leave this area" he said. Now I knew there was something going on if he also wanted me to leave.

He started to walk away but I had a sudden thought. "Wait, Sir!" I called out. He turned back to me as if to ask what I needed. "I heard there was a famous opera house around here but I don't know where to find it. Would you mind pointing me in the right direction?"

"You are a fan of the opera, eh?" he asked me, his accent getting thicker with his obvious enthusiasm for the opera.

"Yes" I replied. "I came here because I heard that there was a famous opera house here and a very famous performer."

"Well, in that case, I would be more than happy to escort you around the city and inform you of its rich opera history" he said. He sounded pretty excited now. "Perhaps I'll even introduce you to the boss. He used to be a famous performer himself."

"That would be amazing" I said with all the enthusiasm I could. "Opera's not really popular where I come from so it's hard to find so much history in one place."

"Meraviglioso!" he said, his excitement climbing. "I'll let Donato know where I'm off to and I will be right back."

"Okay!" I said with a smile. When he was out of sight, I took the opportunity to call the boys over the com. "Hey, did you hear any of that?"

"Sorry, no" Sly answered me.

"There's definitely something going on with the Ferris wheel. One of Octavio's men stopped me from taking photos of it and asked that I get away from it" I said.

"Okay, we'll look into it" Sly replied over the com. "Good work."

"Thanks" I said as I turned my head and saw that he was coming back. "He's coming, I have to go."

"I'll record what's coming from your com" Bentley said. "That way we'll be able to look back at it because we can't listen in on you all day."

"Got it" I said and I turned to greet the man who was finally getting back within hearing distance. When he finally got to me I smiled at him. "I never got your name" I said.

"You can call me Feliciano" he said. "What may I call you?"

"Ana" I said, pulling a name out of thin air as quickly as I could.

"Ana. A lovely name for a lovely woman!" he said as he held out his elbow for me to take.

"You're quite the charmer" I said with a smile as I took his arm.

"I'm not nearly as charming as the history of Venezia" he said cheerfully and he began to walk me across the bridge to the gelateria just over the canal. "This is a wonderful place to start. Tell me, have you ever tasted authentic gelato?"

"I can't say I have" I said with a smile.

"Well, we can't let you miss this experience then. Part of experiencing a place is experiencing the flavors and aromas" he said. He led me inside of the small building and up to the counter. I took a step away from him for a second to marvel at all of the flavors they had for one to try. It was surprising to see as many fruit flavors as there were dairy flavors. "See one that you like?" Feliciano asked.

"I'm not sure what to try. This being my first time I don't want to get too crazy and exotic… how about the Créme Fraîche?" I asked, hoping he would approve of my simple choice for myself.

"Excellent" he replied and went over to the counter to order.

"You're supposed to be doing recon, not going on dates" I heard Sly say over the com. I didn't reply to him. It didn't take Feliciano long to return with a small cup of gelato for me and one in his hand for himself which looked like some sort of fruit flavor.

"Shall we continue our tour?" he asked me.

"Yes, please" I replied, taking my cup from him. "And thank you for the treat."

"It's my pleasure" he said with a smile. As we walked out of the gelateria, he held the door open.

I used the small plastic spoon I had been given to scoop up a bit of the gelato and put it in my mouth. It was like a tiny explosion of flavor in my mouth, sweet and rich and at the same time light in its own way. "This is so good!" I said with a smile.

"I'm glad you like it, this way, my lady" he said with a smile as he guided me away from the building as I munched on my treat and towards a part of the street where you could see water flowing under it because of a pair of glass doors installed over an opening. I couldn't help but smile and stare as we walked over. To me it was very cool. "You like water, Lady Ana?" Feliciano asked.

"I love water" I replied with an even bigger smile than before.

"Well, then you'll truly love our next location" he said.

We went under a bridge and then over one and came to an outdoor aquarium filled with all sorts of local fish out in plain sight for everyone to see. "Oh, how neat" I said as I walked over to the glass and put a hand on it.

"These are all species native to the waters of Venezia" he said. "Although they are often caught for eating, this aquarium lets one experience what it would be like to stand next to the canals instead of above them."

I loved his little insight. It was intriguing, the idea of being able to stand next to the canal instead of over it. A couple of smaller fish swam up to where my hand was and poked their noses at the glass. It was really cute and I traced a finger along the surface of the glass for them to follow. "I'm allowed to take pictures here, right?" I asked with a glance backwards.

"Of course" he replied.

"Great!" I said as I pulled my camera out of my bag. He took my cup for a moment so I could snap some shots of all the fish inside of the tank and then one of the tank itself. I told myself that this counted as recon as I put away my camera and took back my cup. "I'm excited to see where you take me next" I told him.

"That's good because the best has been saved for last" he said with a smile. As we finished our gelato he took me on a path that was parallel to the main canal in the area. Part of the path went under a building. Gondolas and large passenger boats floated by with other tourists on them. We tossed our empty cups in a trash can on the side of the road and then continued over a small bridge which led to a very ornate and expensive looking pair of gates surrounding a small courtyard for a very big building. There was a fountain in the courtyard and I stopped to gaze at it for a moment.

"That's really pretty" I said, just to say something.

"Ah, that's the courtyard for the opera house" Feliciano said with a smile. "We will look at that in a little bit, but now I'd like to take you inside of the opera house."

"That sounds great" I said. "Is there a bathroom by any chance? I need to freshen up."

"Of course, I will show you once we're inside" he said with a smile.

I couldn't say that the security was lax; it just looked that way from the outside. Past the courtyard there was an archway with a red carpet on the pathway under it. On that path there was a huge set of double doors. If one was looking at those double doors from the outside, one would think that an entrance couldn't be more unguarded or obvious, but once Feliciano opened the door and showed me in I was met by four armed guards who flinched towards their guns at the very opening of the door. I was startled by the appearance of the men and Feliciano had to jump in and tell them why I was there so that nothing would happen. As promised, he walked me down a corridor to our right where there was a women's bathroom. I thanked him with a nod and went inside. It was a full bathroom with stalls and sinks and it was eerily empty and quiet.

"Bentley" I said over the com.

"How is your reconnaissance going?" he asked.

"I'm inside of the opera house" I said.

"You're where?" I heard Sly ask.

"Not now, Sly" I replied. "Bentley, there's a good chance I'll meet the Don today. He's a lion, right?"

"Yeah" Bentley answered.

"Great, a lion and a music nut, he's probably got the ears of a falcon" I said. "I need you to either stop talking or make it so my earpiece can't receive sound. If he hears another voice coming from me, we're busted. If there's a way that you can record my conversations from here on out using it, that's great, but I don't want to hear a peep out of you two in my ear until I tell you it's ok."

"Sure" Bentley replied. "If you give me a second I can set that up for you."

I stood in the mirror fixing my hair and fur. Even if he was the enemy and kind of a scary man, I wanted to look at least presentable in his presence. It would also help my image as a tourist who was interested in opera if I actually looked halfway serious.

"Okay, your com is going dark in five seconds" Bentley said. He actually counted down and when he hit zero I didn't hear anything else. I made sure to listen for a little bit longer before deciding that he had cut off my com from receiving any sound before I straightened myself up one more time and finally made my way out of the ladies room.

"Sorry that took so long" I apologized to Feliciano.

"No, I understand. Ladies must look their best at the concert hall" he said.

I nodded. If he was going to make excuses for me, that made my job so much easier.

"The boss wanted to know if you would like to meet him" Feliciano said suddenly. "While you were in the restroom, one of the others told him that we have a visitor interested in opera. He wants to meet you immediately."

"Really? Is that okay?" I asked. I tried to make it sound like I didn't think I was important enough to meet such a man.

"Of course" Feliciano replied. "When he heard of you, he was the one who suggested it."

"That's great" I said and I slapped on a smile.

"He'll be very pleased" he said. "Let us go and meet him now."

"Sure" I said. He held out his arm to me again and I took it.

While we walked I realized that the opera house looked a lot bigger on the inside than it did on the outside. There was a large receiving area where people most likely met and caught up with each other before going into the concert hall. After the large open space were several hallways coming off of the main entrance, all of which seemed to bend around what I assumed to be the concert hall. Feliciano led me off to the left and past many very plain doors all the way to the back of the building where there was a very expensive looking door with a gold star on it. We stopped in front of it and Feliciano knocked gently on the hard wood.

"Who is it?" a deep voice with a thick Italian accent asked from behind the door.

"Sir, it's Feliciano with your guest" Feliciano answered.

"Ah, come in" the voice replied and Feliciano reached forward and opened the door, gesturing for me to enter the room.

Inside the room was a lion at a very large desk that I could only assume was made of some kind of rare wood. He was a lot shorter than I expected him to be but he didn't look as old as I thought he would. Even though he wasn't what I had expected, I had to be cautious because no doubt he was crafty. I couldn't let my guard down.

"You must be the lovely lady I was told about" he said to me as he stood up out of his chair and made his way over to me. "You are stunning and radiant. You are a true fan of the opera?"

"Of course" I said with a smile. "When I heard about this place and the famous man who lived here I had to come."

"You're a bit young to like the opera, no?" he asked, looking at me suspiciously.

"I grew up in a family that appreciated classical music and it led to my love of opera" I explained. "Real art was very important to us."

"I like the way you put that" he said, his voice gaining a bit of cheerfulness. "Opera, a real art." With a wave of his hand he dismissed Feliciano, who smiled at me and then quietly left the room. "Please, have a seat" he said, his voice a strange mixture of gentleness and cold roughness as he gestured to a chair at the front of his desk across from his chair. I sat down, trying to appear a bit nervous. It was hard to play the part of the ordinary girl in a situation that I'd always been taught to be tough and cold in. It was completely opposite of my character. He walked around the desk and took a seat across from me. "So, do you partake in the arts?" he asked.

"I'm not much of a singer. I'm a dancer" I replied.

"A dancer, eh?" he said with a smile. "I'm sure you're a beautiful dancer."

"That's what I've been told" I said.

"You perform?" he asked.

"Of course, what is art if you cannot share it?" I replied.

"Perhaps you will perform for me?" he asked.

"Perhaps, if you have a place that I may do so," I said with a smile, "and perhaps if you perform in return?"

"Ah, you're a sneaky one" he said with a smile of his own. "I like that, and of course I would give a small performance for a fan, especially one with so much to offer."

"Well, where shall we go? I couldn't possibly perform here. I'd be afraid of running into something" I replied, looking around at the spacious room. It may have been spacious but the furniture was inconveniently placed and there was a lot going on in the room despite its size. He stood and walked to my side.

"I will take you to the concert hall" he said. "There is a dressing room where perhaps there is something more appropriate for dancing, as well."

"That sounds wonderful" I smiled as I stood from my seat as well. "Please, lead the way."

He held out his arm for me to take and I took it with practiced grace, but the background story I'd given myself allowed for such grace to be utilized. "What type of dance do you practice?" he asked as he led the way out of the office and we walked back down the hall the way Feliciano had brought me in.

"Ballet" I answered.

"That sounds wonderful. You practice a classical dance form" he said.

"Nothing is as wonderful or beautiful as this building, though" I replied. "From the inside out, the entire thing is a work of art."

"Thank you" he said. "We did not build it but we did many repairs to make it a functioning concert hall again." He pushed open the doors to the main concert hall and led me in. I had to admit that I was impressed by the high ceiling and the lovely carved designs in the pillars that climbed the walls. There was a large balcony over our heads and several small balconies on different levels surrounding the main hall.

The stage itself was currently exposed; I could see the large red curtains drawn up and back. He led me down one of the walkways and up the stairs on the side of the stage. The stage had a beautiful hardwood floor and was much larger when you were standing on it than it looked from the audience's point of view. Backstage there were old stage props and scene sets laying around and pushed into corners. I could imagine a time when those things were used and when this place may have actually been popular. Now that it was a concert hall specifically for opera, it was empty and it didn't help that it was run by the mafia and they didn't let anyone in, either.

"What do you think of the main hall?" he asked me.

"It's beautiful" I replied. "So we'll perform here?"

"Yes, but of course I shall give you a chance to find something to wear. The costume closet is this way" he said as he led me over to stage right and opened up a large set of double doors that led to a large room with several vanities on the outside of the room and racks of costumes and outfits in the middle of the room. These were probably left over from before they bought the concert hall.

"I may choose anything?" I asked.

"Of course" he answered.

I walked over to the racks and began to flip through the hangers of different dresses and tops. On another rack there were skirts and bottoms. Before I could pick out an entire outfit, though, an alarm went off and Octavia looked to the door where a few guards had just entered and sneered. "What's going on?" he demanded.

"Sir, someone has hacked into the main server" one of them replied.

"Is someone stopping them?" he asked.

"We have men working on it" the guard replied but they didn't seem too sure of what was going on.

Octavio turned to me with a groan and shook his head. "It appears that our performances will have to be postponed. I have a bit of opposition to take care of. I will have Feliciano show you out."

"Thank you anyway" I replied with a smile. "Will we have the chance to meet again?"

"I am certain that we will meet again" he said before he walked off to join his men and Feliciano walked up behind me.

"Milady" he said. I turned and smiled at him. "Shall I walk you home?"

"You don't have to take me all the way back to the hotel" I replied.

"The streets are dangerous at all times. I would prefer to see you home as a matter of safety. I couldn't live with finding out something happened to you" he stated.

"But… " I said, trying to shake him because I couldn't take him back to the safehouse.

"The boss insists" he replied and held his arm out for me. His tone left no room for opposition.

"Alright, if it will ease your minds" I said with a smile and I took his arm.

"Where are you staying?" he asked.

"A small hotel on the other side of town" I said. "I can't remember the name… It has a red roof, and it's at an intersection right by the canal." I made up a description that could have been any building in town.

"Ah, I know the hotel you speak of, the Hotel Al Fiume di Venezia" he offered.

"Yeah, that's the one" I said.

He ended up leading me to a slightly more extravagant hotel than I thought he would. In his head, he was probably making up my cover story for me and I'd let him if he wanted to. It was, after all, a red-roofed hotel, a bit on the small side, on the opposite side of town from where we were. The outside of it looked expensive but I could imagine that they booked a few important guests for those who didn't want to stay in a large hotel with a lot of other people causing commotion.

"This is where I leave you" he said. "I must get back to help the boss."

"Be careful" I said before I realized I'd let it slip. "The streets are dangerous" I sheepishly parroted what he'd said earlier to cover myself.

"Indeed they are. Stay inside at night to be safe, even if it is the only request you grant me" he said.

"I will" I replied.

"I hope that we meet again soon. I enjoyed your company Lady Ana" he said with a bow.

"As I enjoyed yours, Sir Feliciano" I said with a slight courtesy.

He took my hand and kissed it before turning and disappearing into the darkening streets. I walked inside to wait until he'd been gone long enough to sneak out unnoticed. My heart was racing a bit. I hadn't really expected him to be so charming and mysterious. It made me think of Sly, who was probably the one causing Feliciano's problems. Sly who was roguishly charming and daring to boot, who hadn't been afraid to kiss me when I was still certain to rip out his esophagus at the first chance I had. Without realizing it, I sighed aloud. I needed to get back to the safe house soon. Not only did I want to go back, but I would have to explain all the flirting to Sly, and later explain to him how all it did was make me think of him.

I gave it five more minutes before leaving the hotel for the safe house, making sure to stay in the back-alleys and shadows so I wouldn't be seen. All I thought about on the way back was the need that turned into burning desire to see Sly and explain myself. I realized that even the thought of being accidentally unfaithful made me nauseous and all I wanted was for Sly to take me in his arms and make me forget everything that had happened.

When I returned, the boys weren't back yet. It was getting to be past midnight before I found myself dozing off. As I sat on the couch in the main room, I fought off sleep as long as I could but eventually it claimed me. The boys had not yet returned.


End file.
